Sluggish evening

I’ve been on a real hummus kick–I made some last night, and again for lunch today…and then my stomach gave me a very clear indication that I’d exceeded my chickpea quotient for the week, so I cut it out. It’s so strange–I’m usually not a big hummus fan, but it’s filling and healthy and refreshing. The mixture of lemon juice and garlic and sesame has hit the spot so, so well.

This week has been strangely exhausting, apparently for everyone. I got some folks together and we ate at Chonmage, this izakaya in Mikamo owned by Fumi, this awesome lady in her 50s with funky-colored hair that’s a different color every time I see her and who loves hanging out with the foreign teachers. Brian and Julie came, and Jordan had messaged me saying that he and James were rehearsing scenes for the musical but hadn’t finalized dinner plans–and they both came, along with Saori and her father (who actually remembered my name AND that I was vegetarian, even teasing me by offering me some of his raw-meat-with-raw-egg dish; I didn’t think he even really knew who I was, so that was quite cool).

We spent almost 3 hours there, and it was a lot of fun–a lot of very sluggish fun, though, because we were all very obviously tired, stumbling over ourselves, saying and doing stupid things (okay, maybe that was just me–Jordan said that the bathroom was painted interesting colors and we should check it out, so Brian got up to peek right as I got up to go use the bathroom, and for whatever reason, because I wasn’t paying attention as I slipped on my indoor slippers, I thought he went in ahead of me and was taking his own sweet time…about five minutes later, while still waiting, I wandered towards the front of the restaurant, and found him smoking a cigarette at the bar; he’d peeked and come out before I even got there).

Brian and Julie headed out, and I went back to Saori’s to (FINALLY) rehearse my few but important parts, which happened to involve both Jordan and James,who were both staying the night at Saori’s. That was a lot of fun–as the shark, I get to circle ominously around James and chew on his canoe oar, and I get to actually grab Jordan (Pinocchio) and shake him around a bit, before I realize he’s made out of wood (at which point I croak a really guttural, “Ehhh? Ayatsuri ningyou da! BLECH! Mazui!” and toss him away) and swim away, leaving behind a dead Pinocchio…and then reverse and do it all over again when the narrators pull out a huge remote control and reverse the scene to show that Pinocchio didn’t actually die there.

(While at Saori’s, I also ended up assuming the role of sound mixer, to compile the CD of in-order music and sounds to be played throughout the play. So now I’m the designer of the poster and the playbill, the Nose Extension Technician, Japanese-snarling shark, malfunctioning robot, and sound mixer. Wow. Talk about a girl of many talents.)

Well, the evening went well–until I reached for my keys and realized that my house key was nowhere to be found. My piece-of-[censored for sensitive parental eyes] spinning Atlanta keychain had fallen open at some point during the evening, the way it seems wont to do quite often, and my house key, the slimmest of the two, slipped out easily and fell somewhere. I looked everywhere–all my pockets, all through my bag, all over Saori’s house, around and in my car, and nothing. I called Ashley and asked if she could check to see if I’d locked my door (I knew I had, but you never knew), and she confirmed that I had, and Saori’s dad called Fumi to see if I’d left it at the restaurant…so I called (and most likely woke up) my landlady, and when I got back about 20 minutes later, she handed me her copy of my house key, silently and without smiling. Ouch. The first thing I did when I got home was to put the keys on a more conventional key ring. I’m leaving tomorrow’s musical rehearsal early to come back and make copies so I can return it to her before heading to Okayama.

This weekend will bring no rest for the weary. I’ll be sleeping very well on Sunday night, for sure, but not so well tonight or tomorrow. Catch you all post-Okayama!

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